A clear understanding of interactions between the arid Southwestern environment and that area's prehistoric inhabitants has been a goal of Southwestern archaeology. This research has reconstructed annual corn and dry bean crop yields for southwestern Colorado from A.D. 650 to 1968, as well as the amounts of those foods available for each of those years. Colorado's five southwestern county dry farming corn and dry bean crop records were combined to create two regional crop series. Modern technology's increasing influence was recognized as being present in the two series. This influence was felt to parallel Colorado's statewide fertilizer consumption and was removed using a multiple regression procedure. Two modern technology free regional crop series resulted. These two series, along with the original two historic crop series were calibrated against five Four Corners tree-ring chronologies from four localities. Both Douglas-fir and pinyon were employed in the calibration. The calibration process used multiple regression so that each series' current annual crop yield could be predicted using one or more of 25 separate dendrochronological predictors. The regression equation deemed most suitable for predicting each of the four crop series was utilized to reconstruct annual crop yield estimates for the A.D. 652-1968 period. Normal verification was impossible since additional independent crop data were lacking. The reconstructed crop yield series were evaluated statistically. Portions of them were compared against historically recorded events. These two types of testing suggested that the retrodictions were probably valid. The crop yield reconstructions provided the basic data for four sets of storage simulations that attempted to determine corn and dry bean availability for each year from A.D. 652 to 1968, given certain assumptions about the levels of storage technology available to the Anasazi of southwestern Colorado. A. E. Douglass' A.D. 1276-1299 "Great Drought" appears to be confirmed. A number of additional famines or food crises have also been recognized. In addition, periods when food was super abundant have been identified. It now appears that much of the Four Corners large public construction projects were undertaken during and perhaps because of these periods of excess surplus.

This study examines problems involved in the management of chronic illness and disability in cross-cultural contexts. It specifically looks at conflicts between different belief systems and different discourse practices in cross-cultural communication between Tohono O'odham (Pagago) families of children with disabilities and non-Indian service providers. The discourse practices through which cultural knowledge is represented in face-to-face interaction, and the range of beliefs and practices which constitute cultural knowledge, are investigated sign ethnographic methods which emphasize a discourse-centered study of meaning and interaction. Utilizing information from participant observation, open-ended interviews, and naturally-occurring speech from a variety of interactional settings, the research focuses on both inter- and intra-cultural variation in knowledge and discourse. The major findings are: (1) a system of beliefs and practices about cause, prevention and treatment of serious illness exists in O'odham communities which differs significantly from the biomedical system within which medical and educational services to children with disabilities is provided; (2) intracultural variation exists in O'odham communities between language and knowledge held by specialists and lay people; and (3) the major genres used by O'odham people to provide information differ significantly from the formats routinely used by service providers to elicit information.

The purpose of this study was to compare employment rates of vocational agriculture program completers from Chinle High School in Arizona with employment rates of non-Hispanic Native Americans residing in the same area and of comparable age. In addition, program completers' perceptions of the competencies taught and the value of the vocational agriculture program at Chinle High School were ascertained. Results indicated vocational agriculture program completers from Chinle High School had higher employment rates than the comparison group. Program completers were employed in a variety of occupations, the highest frequency working in production agriculture enterprises. Program completers were using many Core Curriculum Competencies taught in the vocational agriculture program. The competencies were used in primary vocations, avocations, or both. Program completers placed a high value on their experiences while enrolled in the vocational agriculture program at Chinle High School. The program was given high ratings by participants.

No description available.

This thesis is an ethnographic account of how the Wapichannao, who are situated in the Rupununi of Guyana perceive themselves within the nation-state. This is also an account of how non-Amerindian Guyanese envisage Amerindians as ‘past' peoples. Hence, distinctions are made between Amerindian and non-Amerindian—us vs. them—where both identities become placed as opposite poles within a continuum. Emphasis is placed on the shifting relationships between these poles, but more specifically, the cultural paradigm through which these relationships are made possible. This paradigm, I suggest, may be understood in terms of polarities of difference, with regard to which Amerindians are constantly ambiguating/negotiating, disjoining, and resignifying notions of ‘who they are'. This thesis evidences this paradigm through an ethnography of some of those aspects of Wapichannao culture—village work, the shop, joking activity, culture shows—that are considered to be traditional on the one hand, and modern on the other. In doing so, an incongruous trend emerges, on which makes the classic imagery of Amerindian ontological homogeneity much more complex. Therefore, this thesis moves from the more traditional aspects of Wapichannao culture towards the nation-state, in order to take into account aspects of Amerindian experience absent from classic ethnographic accounts.

By 1836 both the Presbyterians and the Jesuits had penetrated the Pacific Northwest. The Whitmans and the Spaldings were the first Presbyterians to settle in this region. The Whitmans settled with the Cayuse at W ailaptu near Walla Walla and the Spaldings resided at Lapwaii with the Nez Perce tribe. Although two Canadian priests were working in this region, it was not until 1840, with the arrival of Father Jean-Pierre DeSmet that the Jesuits commenced their missionary work. Fr. DeSmet initially settled with the Flathead tribe in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. This paper observes how the Jesuits in Montana and the Presbyterians in the Columbia basin related with their respective tribes. With each situation a pattern occurs of tribal acceptance and rejection. The different tribes were initially eager to learn from the missionaries but as the years pass by, the novelty of Christianity wore thin. What became more obvious to the tribal members was that slowly their numbers were diminishing due to disease brought over by white settlers and simultaneously their land was disappearing as the pioneers built their homes. This observation resulted directly in the Native American rejection of the Christian missionaries. The Jesuits and the Spaldings were fortunate to escape without physical harm. This was not the case, though for Dr. Marcus and Narcissa Whitman who lost their lives in the Whitman massacre. To understand the reasons for this rejection, this paper spends the first few chapters looking into the background of the three tribes as well as the missionaries. It then examines the three different tribes and their history with their respective missionaries, observing the reasons, both long and short term for their failures. In the final chapter the paper investigates the obvious yet undocumented competition between the Catholic and Protestant missionaries to be the sole religion in this region. Their co-existence of these two faiths was another factor which resulted in the disillusionment of the Native American tribes in this region.

The radical transformations attendant upon the imposition of colonial rule on the Siksikaitsitapi or Blackfoot of northern Alberta and southern Montana are examined in this dissertation in order to emphasise the threads of continuity within a tapestry of cultural change c.1870-1920. The dissertation traces cultural persistence through the analysis of texts of history and literature that constructed Blackfoot subjectivity in the half-century following the end of traditional lifeways and settlement on three reserves in Canada and one reservation in the United States of America. This interdisciplinary thesis has been undertaken jointly in the School of History and Philosophy, and the School of English, Media and Performance Studies. It combines the tools of historical research and literary criticism to analyse the discourses and counter-discourses that served to construct Blackfoot subjectivity in colonial texts. It engages with the ways in which the Blackfoot navigated colonisation and resisted forced acculturation while adopting strategies of accommodation to ensure social reproduction and even physical survival in this period. To this end, it presents four case studies, each focusing on a discrete process of Blackfoot cultural transformation: a) the resistance to acculturation and cultural revitalisation as it relates to the practice of Ookaan (Sun Dance); b) the power shifts ushered in by European contact and the intersection between power and Blackfoot dress practices; c) the participation of Blackfoot "organic intellectuals" in the construction of Blackfoot history through the transformation of oral stories into text via the ethnographic encounter; and d) the continuing links between Blackfoot history and literature, and contemporary fictional representations of Blackfoot subjectivity by First Nations authors. This thesis acknowledges that Blackfoot history and literature have been constructed through a complex matrix of textual representations from their earliest contacts with Europeans. This dissertation is a study of the intersection between textual representations of the Blackfoot, and resistance, persistence and cultural revitalisation 1870-1920. It seeks to contribute to debates on the capacity of the colonised Other to exercise agency. It engages with views articulated by organic intellectuals, and Blackfoot and other First Nations scholars, in order to foster a dialogue between Blackfoot and non-Blackfoot scholarship.

This paper examines the effects of federal policies on the health and health care system of the Coquille Indian Tribe. A historical framework is provided within which the nature and magnitude of these effects can be assessed. This paper provides a discussion of the effects of federal termination policy on the health of the Coquille tribe. The health of the Coquille tribe is compared to that of other Indians, and to the Oregon All Races group. The effect of efforts by the Indian Health Service to improve the health of Indian people in the United States is appraised. Efforts of the Coquille Tribe to address the long-standing problem of inadequate health care for its tribal members are documented. Particular attention is given to the achievements of the Coquille Tribal Health Department since 1989, when recognition of the Coquille Tribe's sovereign status was restored by Congress. Secondary research employed both archival and library sources. The primary research consisted of compilation of data from unpublished Coquille tribal documents and interviews. The interviews were conducted with staff members of the Coquille Tribal Health Department and with elders of the Coquille tribe old enough to remember the health care systems prior to termination. Additional interviews were conducted with elders from other Oregon tribes and with staff of the Indian Health Service clinic in Salem, Oregon. The major conclusions are that though the federal government passed its termination laws in 1954, for the Coquille "termination" was actually a process that began in the 1850s and continued on for over one hundred years. Termination for the Coquille only gained "official" recognition by Congress in 1954. The negative health effects upon the Coquille people were due to the actual termination, not the official termination. Since the Coquille tribe gained restoration of its federal recognition it has established a solid base for a health care system for its members. Plans for the growth of this health department and the expansion of the services it offers should, when implemented, provide for the health care needs of the tribe and other Indians in the area. / Graduation date: 1996

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 399-413).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, December 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Jan. 19, 2010). "Program in American Studies." Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-109).